20-something at Elephanta Island, Bombay, India

After a morning of visiting the attractions in south Mumbai, my travel friends and I jumped on a ferry near the Gateway of India and headed to Elephanta Island, a UNESCO World Heritage Site composed of cave temples. We only paid 120 rupees a piece (about $3 CAD at the time) and then were guided onto a quivery boat. We were then prodded to leap from boat to boat to the furthest one from the shore, getting snagged and then pushed forward by the crew after each jump - weeeee! The boat ride was just over an hour, with shelter from the sun and a gentle breeze, which was VERY welcome. It was midday by this point, and was the first time I realized what perspiring really means! I think this was the day we went through the most water, probably anywhere upwards of 20 Liters between the six of us, and at one point I realized that it had been over 8 hours and not a single person in our group had needed to stop for a bathroom break yet!

We arrived at Elephanta Island and, after a quick walk, arrived at our "white whale" for the day - a very long climb up stone steps covered in blue tarp and lined with souvenir stalls. In the beginning I was grateful for the cover and the opportunity to glance at a few Indian handicrafts, but after around five minutes I was sweating like I was exercising in a greenhouse, with shouts of "yes ma'am!" coming from all sides (the Indian vendor method of seeing if you would like to buy something). We finally reached the top, and determined it would be a nice plan to rest and eat before someone passed out. The five caves were truly  fascinating, with stone carvings of Hindu deities, evidently crafted during the Gupta Empire. The most significant sculpture is the 20-foot Trimurti-Sadasiva statue of the 3-headed Shiva. We took lots of photographs, and at one point - to our entertainment - a group of Indian teens asked to take a photos with us!

So the strange thing about Elephanta Island:  there aren't any elephants. What there ARE however, are lots and lots of monkeys. Cute? Sure, at first... But undoubtedly these monkeys had a good deal of previous contact to tourists and know that we usually tend to bring beverages. Naturally we  did not know that this is what these monkeys wanted, so when one ran up to my Brazilian friend growling and hissing, we weren't quite sure what to do! Fortunately my friend put the pieces together and threw his one-liter bottle of Coke to the monkey, who swiftly grabbed it and started chugging! As we went through the caves, we lost various water bottles to similar "sinister" monkeys, however my 6"5 Danish friend refused to relinquish his bottle by keeping it over his head!

Written by Kristan for Life Out of a Suitcase. Read more stories by 20 something woman expats and travelers at Life Out of a Suitcase.

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